Just realised I got the date wrong :P :-[ Trevors Head is Saturday 12th not 8th - I will be on a train back from Coventry so can't make it :( May need to look into their next London show on 28th March instead...

Another nostalgia fest gig booked - Terrorvision celebrating 25 years of How to Win Friends and Influence People - 25 years!!! how did that happen???Handily filling the vacant month of May with a gig ;D

Picked up a couple of tickets to check out the first gig for a new band project from young blues guitarist Aaron Keylock, he has now got himself a vocalist and a proper band only £10 so worth a punt.My new first gig of the year.

Picked up a couple of tickets to check out the first gig for a new band project from young blues guitarist Aaron Keylock, he has now got himself a vocalist and a proper band only £10 so worth a punt.My new first gig of the year.

Better hair than Pricey, better looking than Hass but somehow lacklustre during the first half of the show. Material strays into the pop end of the blues and one wonders if he's ever been left by a woman, let alone abused, betrayed or even touched a drop of alcohol.

2nd half was much better with some wild run throughs of some older material and a couple of covers (Purple Rain was a particularly excellent version, even if it was a somewhat clichéd choice)

The usually staid crowd at the Stables (polite in the extreme and seated) loved it.

2 more added - quite different - noticed John Paul Jones was playing the 100 Club in London with Thurston Moore - the chance to see JPJ in such a small venue was too much to pass up.Not sure what they will be playing but with Thurston Moore anything is possible - maybe a couple of Crooked Vultures tracks would suit the style??

Then in November Old School Thrashers Sacred Reich return to promote their first new album in years and are playing The Underworld in Camden

The Simo gig is still advertised on the 100 Club site for April 9th despite social media posts saying that the second half of his European Tour was cancelled??? - confused.com......

The Sheepdogs brought their "rock" set and were better for it than last time out. Crowd seemed to love it and rightly so,

Rival Sons played the whole of the new album. It was good, but I found my concentration drifting a couple of times throughout the set. Great playing and the singer gets better and better. Less "fecking about"

Met with Ron & Terr beforehand, so good to catch up and get over the 3hour + journey to Brum.

Temperance Movement brought their "rock set" and had the crowd bouncing before BOC

BOC could have played anything for me and I would still have loved it. A couple of deeper cuts and plenty of crowd pleasers made the list pretty good. I looked at the previous lists this AM and saw that they'd played "Flaming Telepaths" a couple of times on tour. I may have wet my pants if they'd rolled that out last night. I had to make do with a fantastic "Last Days of May" instead.

This may be one of the last opportunities I get to see them live. Buck can still play, but he's getting slower as the years catch up with him. I thought I saw a limp as he left the stage which reminded me of a dodgy hip. Eric Bloom spent more time behind the keyboards than out front and Buck took many of the vocals. The rest of the band are terrific, especially Danny Miranda on bass. His chord work was a real highlight throughout and made up for some of the "vagueries" of the lead protagonists. Bloom played some fantastic (subtle) extra notes during the solo to "Reaper" to make up for some stuyf that Buck couldn't fit in....

BOC could have played anything for me and I would still have loved it. A couple of deeper cuts and plenty of crowd pleasers made the list pretty good. This may be one of the last opportunities I get to see them live.

Glad you enjoyed it Bez - I remember thinking the same when I went to HRH in Pwllheli nearly 5 years ago (seen them 3 times since including the KT Forum show I bumped into you at 😎)

8 UK gigs in 9 days is some going for a couple of chaps well into their 70's - On Tour Forever, indeed!

Pleased they played the Vigil and Black Blade at Manchester, plus I Love the Night in the encores (first time I've heard them play that gem live 👍).

Still never seen them play Joan Crawford - so they better come back one more time 😉

Top playing form Bernie and the band and Bernie's voice is also in fine fettle. A few too many Whitesnake songs for me (9 if you include ANLITHOTC). A genuinely nice man who obviously loves what he does (doing the merch stand himself)

A new venue for me at the Clapham Grand. Smallish and reminiscent of Shepherds Bush Empire and Koko in Camden.

OK support act (who's name escapes me already, so can't have been too good).

Vintage Trouble played a high energy set with lots of crowd interaction and invasion by the lead singer. He appeared on the balcony a couple of times, in a box, next to us, was carried crowd surf style and even managed a handstand on top of the audience. All fabulous stuff which was lapped up by the audience.

I'd forgotten how good the rest of the band are. As Mark commented, if they had a better back catalogue they would be huge, but for the time being we'll get by with seeing them every couple of years in small venues. Things could be worse. ;)

Like him or loathe him (I'm a liker) Mark Thomas is certainly passionate about his subjects.

This focussed on the NHS; where it came from, where it is now and where its' future lies. An excellent mixture of humour and hard reality, under pinned by a series of open interviews with practitioners and senior managers. Excellent (and sobering) stuff

Like him or loathe him (I'm a liker) Mark Thomas is certainly passionate about his subjects.

This focussed on the NHS; where it came from, where it is now and where its' future lies. An excellent mixture of humour and hard reality, under pinned by a series of open interviews with practitioners and senior managers. Excellent (and sobering) stuff

8/10

We take the NHS for granted. Had the worst week last week. Daughter had a seizure on returning from school on Monday. She was born at 24 weeks and has a really complicated medical history with a 'shunt' in her skull which allows pressure to be drained, if needed. We immediately thought there was an issue with that and panic ensued - I could not hold it together when I was on the phone to the emergency services. I could hear the sirens by the time I put the phone down. Amazing. Operated on the following day followed by a week in hospital with utterly incredible nurses and doctors. Back home now and back to school today and all is good.

I cannot pretend to know the ins and outs of the NHS but it is the absolute lynchpin of a decent, civilised society. I'd happily pay more tax - as long as I knew the money could be ring fenced and used for the NHS...

We take the NHS for granted. Had the worst week last week. Daughter had a seizure on returning from school on Monday. She was born at 24 weeks and has a really complicated medical history with a 'shunt' in her skull which allows pressure to be drained, if needed. We immediately thought there was an issue with that and panic ensued - I could not hold it together when I was on the phone to the emergency services. I could hear the sirens by the time I put the phone down. Amazing. Operated on the following day followed by a week in hospital with utterly incredible nurses and doctors. Back home now and back to school today and all is good.

I cannot pretend to know the ins and outs of the NHS but it is the absolute lynchpin of a decent, civilised society. I'd happily pay more tax - as long as I knew the money could be ring fenced and used for the NHS...

Glad it has worked out, mate....the feeling of helplessness when its one of your kids is overwhelming....

One of the points that Thomas was making was that its not just the NHS that needs the extra funds. Social care and the general "wellness" of the less privileged in society also needs to be addressed otherwise the demand for NHS services will keep rising. Compelling arguments.

He also trotted out various stats about how good the NHS actually is (or isn't). We're well down the international "league tables" when it comes to cancer survival. 40something out of 50something for pancreatic cancer, for example.

I'm sure there are other views available and other stats before folk start jumping in...

Glad it has worked out, mate....the feeling of helplessness when its one of your kids is overwhelming....

One of the points that Thomas was making was that its not just the NHS that needs the extra funds. Social care and the general "wellness" of the less privileged in society also needs to be addressed otherwise the demand for NHS services will keep rising. Compelling arguments.

Ditto the first point.

Demand for NHS services will always rise. The longer it keeps people alive, the more chronic conditions they end up living with.

Sertlist started at the very beginning with Fab Four costumes, close harmonies and witty banter and then moved on to Rubber Soul / Revolver erz. They missed out Sgt Pepper and moved on to Magical Mystery Tour. The second set focussed on the best bits of the White Album before they moved on to Let It Be & Abbey Road

Met Beardy pre-gig, which was nice. Bisto had become unable to attend at the last minute

Got inside to see "Wheel" a Finnish 4 piece who could all play, but not always the same song at the same time. Next up were the truly dreadful, Ghost Iris. Just shite. I was very glad for my earplugs.

Having had 2 support bands I feared that Soen would be on very late, but they took the stage at a reasonable hour. Unfortunately it was just dull. The playing was OK, but I found myself wishing I wasn't there, so left after an hour. Beardy followed me out as we left Mark to see the show through...

Met Beardy pre-gig, which was nice. Bisto had become unable to attend at the last minute

Got inside to see "Wheel" a Finnish 4 piece who could all play, but not always the same song at the same time. Next up were the truly dreadful, Ghost Iris. Just shite. I was very glad for my earplugs.

Having had 2 support bands I feared that Soen would be on very late, but they took the stage at a reasonable hour. Unfortunately it was just dull. The playing was OK, but I found myself wishing I wasn't there, so left after an hour. Beardy followed me out as we left Mark to see the show through...

I must admit to finding the Pineapple Thief a bit underwhelming last Fridaydespite the presence of Gavin Harrison.Speaking of KC drummers, I thoroughly enjoyed Ork's support set - featuring Pat Mastelotto and Colin Edwin in their ranks 😎

Mental, but great fun. I was in the lower age group of attendees. Lots of women who should know better wearing "cat ear" headbands. lots of old men who should know better wearing band tee shirts, but they loved it. I've never seen such an animated crowd at the usually sedate Stables...

I've fallen out of love with the TTB's studio material, (a bit preachy an but live they're a different proposition.

Palladium is a great venue for them (not so sure about Wembley Arena where we're seeing them in 2020)

Split into 2 sets, the first was a little slow, but the second was excellent. Derek Trucks needs to turn around so the crowd can see what he's doing. Susan T floats my boat in all sorts of ways! Check out Mark's pictures on his Flickr account to see what I mean....

Why is Bez attending a "stoner rock" festival I hear you ask....? To see Earthless is the answer.

We saw 4 bands on the day.

Colour Haze - excellent. will investigate further 7/10Earthless - breathless as ever, spoiled only by dickheads thinking that moshing is still trendy. 7.5/10Witch - ShitAll Them Witches. Pretty good and worthy of further investigation 6/10